The work of our SHiFT Movement is hard. We’re working with children and families at some of the most difficult moments in their lives and within and across services that brim with systemic obstacles to the consistent, intensive, tenacious, relationship centred support that’s needed. The broader context to our work is also beset with challenge: growing national child poverty; the rise of extremist ideology fuelling hatred and division, including racism, anti-semitism, Islamophobia, and anti-migration narratives; and Councils facing bankruptcy. The ambitions of Labour’s ‘mission-led’ government, including especially for SHiFT’s work its Safer Streets and Opportunities Missions, are yet to be realised.

We say this not to be gloomy, but to underscore the vital contribution that everyone who is part, or who will be part, of the SHiFT Movement makes to enabling change in this context. It really does take a village. And so, to everyone reading this, thank you.

Thank you for believing, as we do, that every child and young person deserves to be kept safe, nurtured by people who see the potential in them, and supported and challenged to move to a place of strength and responsibility from which they can aspire, achieve and contribute to society. Thank you for sharing our determination to do something about the gap between this belief and the experiences of all children in this country. Whether you’re a young person or carer who has experienced ‘the system’; a practitioner working tirelessly to break cycles with a child and family; a researcher driving understanding in what works, how and why; a leader in public services re-wiring the system to centre relationships; a funder investing trust and belief in this vision for change; a storyteller shifting narratives and understanding in the media, policy or legislation, or simply one conversation at a time; we see you, we celebrate you, and we thank you.